Wireless communication devices, such as cellular phones, personal digital assistants and the like, include microprocessors, input devices including a keypad, special function buttons and wheels, output devices, information storage capabilities, and run one or more software applications. Examples of software applications used in these wireless devices include micro-browsers, address books, and email clients. Additionally, current generations of such devices have access to a plurality of services via the Internet. A wireless device may, for example, be used to browse web sites on the Internet, to transmit and receive graphics, and to execute streaming audio and/or video applications.
Such devices are typically tested during their respective production to ensure reliability and quality control. Once a wireless device is assembled in full plastics (or other material for its shell), it typically progresses through various test stages to qualify each of its components. For mobile cellular devices these tests may include the following: Keys, Internal Mic (microphone), Internal Speaker, Charger, Buzzer, Vibrator, Vision, Radiated RF (radio frequency), etc.
Depending on the initial path of test development, most testing systems execute a series of test stages wherein each stage sequentially executes a subset of tests drawn from a test plan. As development progresses some of these test stages are consolidated depending on the compatibility of function, fixture, or process. For example, consider the following two exemplary testing system flows: